Happyfeet

Oh it's not so hard, just have to be very consistent same as any tank. Hardest part I've found is keeping up with the demand on Calcium. I'm hoping switching over to 2 part dosing will fix the issue.

Well, I've finally got enough people asking me to post pictures of my tank I've decided to go ahead and post it up. I hope you guys enjoy my tank at least a quarter as much as I do! It's not the cleanest tank, I still have hair algae and yes, it is annoying. Here you can see my IT2040 LED fixture Here you can see my MP10 controller and my Reef Octopus BH-1000 Skimmer Here is where I store all my reef stuff and I've set up to start dosing 2 part, because the kalk wasn't keeping up with my tanks demands. Full tank shot using my cellphone, bummer the torch coral doesn't look golden in the picture. That's probably enough for now I guess! There are some coral skeletons as you saw, I put the LEDS over my tank at 50% thinking I would acclimate them slowly. Little did I know 50% was still stronger than they were used to and I ended up nuking half my corals literally in a matter of hours. Lesson learned! I don't think I'll be winning any photography awards

I've had good luck with Flower Anemones and mini maxi anemones staying put. But with all anemones it's a crapshoot whether they will stay put or not.

How deep is your shallowest coral? running over 75% caused my upper corals to bleach even when acclimating slowly over the course of a month. My running numbers were created using trial and error and personal preference to color my upper most corals are 2-4 inches from the surface of the water.

Seeing the couple people who posted intensity, What max intensity are people running their lights at and what kind of corals are you keeping? I'm running at 50 white 45 blue and I keep SPS 12 inches from the surface

I have vague memories of talking with a biologist in St. Thomas, one of the things we talked about were lifespans of fish. The Hippo tang, if I remember right, the oldest she found was roughly 18 years old and about a foot long. I didn't ask how it was measured, but I'd assume its the standard scientific tip of the nose to the last vertebrae. I think the conversation spawned off an Invasive species conversation about the Lionfish.

It wont last! You will be on a forum or a website somewhere and you will see a picture or read a story and before you know it you are setting up a planted tank again. I swear it was easier to kick my [redacted] addiction than my freshwater addiction! But congratulations!

I have more blue in the morning and evening. First half hour is blue only then white slowly fills in. By "Mid day" I have 5 more white than blue.

Mine come on at 3PM and go off at 12AM They go in steps of half hours and increase by 5 until they are at 50 blue and 50 white then stay that way for a couple hours and sink back down. Anything over 50% seems to bleach my corals.

Someone get that guy in the club

Well if anyone new is interested they are more than welcome to see my 28 Gallon Biocube, mostly SPS. Filtration is Skimmer and Media Reactor, dosing Kalkwasser via dosing pump. Located in Sterling, just PM to see when I'm available.

Fixed that up for ya

Nooo nothing like that,it was all very ordinary.

Welcome! Lets see some pictures!

Are you talking about Johnston Atoll? I've been there a couple times now, there is a lot of coral growing now, one of the many nuclear waste site caps is partially submerged (i know right?!) and there are stony corals growing right along the cap. There were a couple test sites a ways away from the atoll, but they were too deep to see any growth so I can't say whether or not anything was growing down there. I Was doing Yellow Crazy Ant management on the Atoll, so I didn't spend much time in the water.

I picked up 2 black Ice Clowns, A Yellow Torch Coral, Rock Anemone and a Porcelain Crab, plus many many new random frags!

Wanted to say thanks! Picked up a Pair of Black Ice Clowns and some awesome corals at a great price!

Hello Brownmarc and welcome. O First off, you need to upgrade your lighting if you want to do anything more than Kenya Tree's and mushrooms. I just jumped on the LED bandwagon, but there are plenty of options out there, especially with many folks selling off their old lighting as they upgrade to LED. (Check out the For Sale Section of the forum for some good deals) O Second, make sure your chemistry is correct, I started off with a hydrometer and a skimpy filter. GET A REFRACTOMETER this will be your best buy, it's a little expensive, but honestly, I can't see keeping coral without one without making a lot of mistakes. Make sure the water you use for top offs and water changes is clean, a TDS meter is cheap and will tell you instantly whether it is or not. O A lot of people go bigger, but some people, such as myself, go smaller. I found I like the size and appearance of the Biocube 29 over my old 75 Gal and 55 Gal. It all comes down to personal taste. I could care less about fish, so the size of the tank really ceased to matter to me. O You will need some water flow and powerheads are cheap (relatively speaking), pick one or two up. I recommend the Hydor Korelias for starting. A Nano would probably work for what you need, even in the 40. O You might want to look into a media reactor, they are fairly cheap and can really help soften any mistakes you make early on. Good beginner filter, especially if you have a smaller tank, I ran one in the begining until my tank stabalized. Thats my two cents, I'm sure someone above has probably answered your questions better than I ever will.

This probably only applies to my first tank. I wouldn't have bought the rock off Craigslist, ... it's the only thing I can think of for why I NEVER could keep any coral alive at all. For my current tank... I wouldn't have adopted a cat.

First year out of highschool I was baby sitting to make some extra money for college. I was baby sitting at this one house and they had a hampster, which unfortunately died while I was there taking care of them. For some reason I panicked and tried to flush the hampster before the kid noticed his hampster was dead (I REAAAAALLY don't do well in those situations, so I was more panicked over an emotional kid than the hampster). Unfortunately the kid walked in as i plunked the hampster into the toilet. A sane non panicked mind would have probably told the kid what was going on.... however mine was no such mind. I told the kid his parents signed with the government to adopt this special hampster who was really a hampster spy in training. His training just finished and he has gone into hybernation until he is delivered to his spy destination to complete his mission for the U.S. I then proceeded to explain the government uses toilets as a traveling system for the spy hampsters and the government thanks him for helping to train this spy. The kid helped me flush the hampster and I got a very concerned call from his parents later the next day. I never baby sat again... how this relates I don't know... but tell the kid the truth, it will probably save him an embarassing conversation with his school mates.

+1 these things encrust so fast. I have a plating coral in the center of my rockwork because of a bad glue job. It anchored itself to the rock in less than a couple days.

I lost a lot of LPS as well. It was mostly a SPS/LPS tank

Well here is the aftermath, spent some time today pulling the dead corals out, left a couple bleached corals in that looked like they might have a little fight left in them. Overall it was a loss of 60-70%

Yup, otherwise I'd still be in the dark and doing huge water changes every day.

Hahaha, need not return! I'm sorry, you came in expecting a tragedy and got blind sided with a joke! my apology! Ideas are forming!